Currently, educational introduction to many fields such as art, music, history, science, etc. is accomplished by specialized facilities such as learning centers or museums. The purpose of these facilities is to generate and stimulate interest among the general public and more particularly students in the particular field. Current museums utilize standing displays which demonstrate exhibits and provide information in the form of text and graphics. Such displays cannot necessarily hold the attention span of students and thus were not efficient in garnering interest or supplying information.
In order to further interest, various means were developed to further enhance the communication of information. One mechanism was the use of television or film in order to hold student attention and further interest. Such means were more effective than simple graphical or printed media; however, it was found that interaction between a student and a display increases communication effectiveness. Such interaction also enables a student to directly participate in the activity, thus increasing interest and curiosity.
In order to increase effective communication of information, various interactive multi-media displays have been proposed. These include displays which allow a user to select information by buttons, touch screens or switches. More advanced displays have a number of options which use visual or audio cues to engage a user. However, there have not been any truly interactive systems because the displays are limited in information and feedback which may be supplied by a user. Moreover, the displays must stand by themselves and are, thus, also limited to the information contained in that particular display. A user cannot use information learned at different displays to interact with other displays based on the information previously learned. Additionally, such displays must keep a user moving at a set pace which may or may not be compatible with an individual student's learning aptitude.
Thus, there exists a need for a system which allows individual users to have a common control device for interactive multi-media stations. There is also a further need for a universal interface to allow a user to manipulate sounds or visual images with a portable controller. There is also a need for a learning system with multiple stations to allow users to learn different lessons. There is additionally a need for a learning system which keeps track of a user's progress through various learning stations and adjusts further lessons accordingly. There is a further need for an interactive learning system which permits adjustment of various lessons according to user feedback.